Cowboys-49ers was the greatest NFL rivalry of the ‘90s, with the 49ers winning the Super Bowl in ’94 and the Cowboys winning it all in ‘92, ‘93, and ’95. The two teams clashed in the playoffs in three of those four years. My personal favorite moment of this rivalry has to be the NFC championship game from the ’94 season, when the 49ers jumped out to a 21-0 lead on the two-time defending champion Cowboys, and went on to win 38-28 before plastering the San Diego Chargers 49-26 in the Super Bowl. The most famous moment from this historic rivalry is undoubtedly “The Catch” from Joe Montana to Dwight Clark which jumpstarted the 49er dynasty of the ‘80s and early ‘90s.

The Athletics and the Texas Rangers battled for control of the AL West in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, with the Rangers winning the division 3 out of 4 years in ’96-’99, followed by the A’s winning 3 out of 4 times in ’00-’03. Despite the Angels’ recent dominance in the division, the Rangers broke through with a division title this past year prior to their World Series appearance, and with the A’s recent additions to their lineup, the two teams are poised to be fierce division rivals in the years to come.

The Warriors, who had not made the playoffs in 13 years, entered the 2007 NBA playoffs as an 8-seed in the Western Conference, and were matched up against the 1-seed Dallas Mavericks who had won a staggering 67 games during the regular season (only 5 games short of the record set by the Chicago Bulls). In arguably the biggest NBA playoff upset of all time, the Warriors, led by Baron Davis, stunned the Mavericks by winning the series in only 6 games.

In 2004, the Cal Bears were ranked 4th in the country going into the final week of the season, while the Texas Longhorns were ranked 5th or 6th in various polls. Despite Cal’s 10-1 record (the only loss a 23-17 nail-biter to the eventual National Champion USC Trojans, AT the Coliseum), the Bears were inexplicably leapfrogged by the Longhorns in the final rankings, after Mack Brown openly pleaded for pollsters to promote his Longhorns past Cal. Because of this flip-flop in the rankings, Texas was granted a berth in the Rose Bowl, while Cal was given a trip to the Holiday Bowl.

The Sharks and the Dallas Stars formed one of the biggest Western Conference rivalries of the ‘90s, as the Stars eliminated the Sharks from the playoffs twice during the 1997-2000 period, and won the Stanley Cup in 1999. The rivalry is now heating up again, with the two teams playing three overtime games so far this season.